The secret
by mkh2
Summary: Naruto’s got a secret! Why is it that he seems to be so powerful ever since coming back from his training with Jiraiya? Sasuke is bound and determined to discover why. Rated for language.


The secret

~

a Naruto fanfiction

by

mkh2

~

Disclaimer: Oh no! Did you hear? I'm _not_ the owner of Naruto! Whatever shall we do? What's that? Oh, ignore me? I feel so loved. ::goes off to sulk in a corner::

~

Naruto's got a secret! Why is it that he seems to be so powerful ever since coming back from his training with Jiraiya. Sasuke is bound and determined to discover why.

~

            Sasuke chewed anxiously at his lower lip, waiting for the rambunctious blonde to pass under him. He had to time this right or his plan would fail.

~

            The rasengan was an awesome technique; it rivaled the chidori in power, destructive force and style. He, Sasuke, had gone through so much to master the chidori, concentrating solely on the technique under Kakashi's tutelage but Naruto, on an escapade (really, a mission to pick up Tsunade-sama, the new Hokage) where he didn't get to pay full attention to the technique all day every day, who didn't eat, drink, sleep, dream the rasengan technique the way he had with the chidori, had somehow acquired the powerful ability. Hell, he hadn't even been at the training for Rasengan for as long he had for the chidori. He hated to admit it, but he was jealous. How could that goofy dobe get one up on him?

            He also felt slightly guilty. He had known that Kakashi had said he wasn't going to train anyone, had said this to Naruto who had eagerly turned to Kakashi for training, the whole while knowing that he had planned to meet Sasuke for training far from Naruto. It hadn't been fair to him, to lie to Naruto, to let him flail about on his own, to try to do the same things which came so much harder to Naruto than to Sasuke and he having help instead of the dobe who needed it. In a way he had known; it was expected that the person with the most promise would be concentrated on but, in some way, it turned out they were wrong. How did Naruto become so unbeatable?

~

            _"Naruto," breathed Sasuke, leaning down from his perch behind the blonde boy who was currently scarfing down a bowl of miso ramen at the Ichiraku, "I've gotta know you became so powerful. I_ need_ to know. It doesn't make sense."_

_            Naruto closed his eyes as he finished his ramen and then took a drink of water to clean his mouth. "If you need to know, the secret to my success in getting stronger is under my clothes. That's all I'm saying."_

            It tormented him! How cruel could he get! It's true, they _are_ rivals, but are they not also comrades? He wasn't entirely certain how something so powerful could be hidden under a floofy orange jumpsuit that looked a size too big for the wearer, but Naruto was indeed powerful now. If he learned this secret, surely he could wield the power that would come with it and use it to avenge his clan. He needed to defeat Itachi and he was certain that this power that was hidden under Naruto's jumpsuit would come in handy.

            So now he waited, perched precariously in this tree over the street that Naruto would surely walk down on his way to meet his "secret admirer." Okay, he admitted it, it was a sneaky, underhanded way to ambush the blonde but he wasn't going to wait for Naruto to get naked at the public bathhouse. Who knows when that would next happen?

            "If you really want to know why I'm so powerful, you gotta know what's under my clothes!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at him before tugging at his lower eyelid, making faces and going "nya nya nya!" He grinned. "And there's no way that's happening!"

            Sasuke grit his teeth. A challenge? Did Naruto seriously think he would lower himself to his juvenile antics?

            Hell yeah.

~

            "Where the hell is that usuratonkachi!" Sasuke finally yelled, having waited for five hours

            "Why don't you check behind you?" countered a cool voice.

            Sasuke stiffened before slowly turning to look behind him. There on the nearby rooftop, crouched down to almost his level, was the blonde gennin himself. "'ey, dobe."

            "What are you yelling about, Uchiha?" Naruto frowned.

            "I… heard you were going to come here to… I wanted a good spar." Sasuke deadpanned at Naruto. 'Believe me. Believe me. Believe me.'

            "Oh, yeah, sure, I bet," snorted Naruto flippantly. Sasuke bristled.

            "I heard! I heard, you were supposed to be here hours ago!"

            "Whatever. I'm going to go get some ramen since I was out training all day," Naruto sighed and stretched.

            He was training… all day. Well, that explains why he hadn't shown up looking for his secret admirer. If Naruto had discovered he had a secret admirer, surely he would come rushing out to meet this person, whomever she may be – the boy was so starved for attention and admiration, he'd probably be willing to go without anyone should they say they liked the blonde child.

            Sasuke watched as Naruto jumped down to the street below him before jogging away, intent on that bowl of ramen he had mentioned. He waited a moment before following the boy. No way was he going to let his prey get out of his sights.

~

            Naruto had been eagerly slurping up his ramen and bantering easily with the owner of the Ichiraku who mostly replied with grunts and nods. He got up and stretched his arms into the air, the front of his jacket rising a bit. Sasuke's eyes narrowed. He _knew_ he caught a flash of _something_ on his stomach, something different from the times he had seen him in his shirt alone.

            It was driving him mad. How the hell was he supposed to get in the dobe's clothes?

            Okay, that didn't sound quite right.

            Shaking his head, he noticed that the orange-clad gennin had paid and was now leaving the ramen shop. He slowly started following him from the shadows.

            Naruto was speeding up? Why was he – well, he is a ninja, ne? Surely he must've noticed he was being followed. Naruto had soon taken to the roof tops, having run up a wall, and was dashing across them, intent on getting to where he was going. Was he trying to get him confused? Didn't Naruto live over to the left somewhere? Why was he was going this way? Who could Naruto possibly know who lived on this side of town.

            The prey had now stopped in front of a door and was eagerly knocking on the door. "Open up, open up, open up," he could hear him muttering.

            The door opened.

            "Naruto, you're late!" The taller brown-haired man said.

            "Ah, ha, gomen ne, Iruka-sensei, I kinda lost track of time," Naruto grinned sheepishly at the older man. Sasuke groaned. He should've known that Naruto wouldn't have noticed.

            "Well, come in," Iruka disappeared from the door.

            Naruto took a step inside, then turned abruptly and pulled a face at the area where Sasuke was hiding, eyelid tugged down and tongue out, before slamming the door and soliciting a yell from Iruka for mistreating his property.

            Sasuke sweatdropped. Then again…

~

            Sasuke growled, marking off yet another failed plan on his scroll. He tried tricking Naruto into telling him what was under his clothes but after a small amount of insults were traded they immediately started wailing on each other and the plan was soon forgotten. He tried bribing him but Naruto, who had enough presence of mind to realize what it was that Sasuke wanted, had turned him down flat (He had even tried bribing Naruto with a date with Sakura but instead got a punch to his face and an earful about how the future Hokage didn't need help getting dates with girls.) He even considered ambushing him at the Ichiraku but as soon as he approached Naruto the owner had whapped him over the head with a soggy and foul smelling cloth – evidently Naruto had mentioned what Sasuke had been trying to do and the owner didn't want his best customer to be scared off.

            He had gotten home late that night, or actually, very early in the morning, having tried his latest scheme, where he tried to jump Naruto in his sleep. Apparently Naruto had been expecting something of the sort and had had his bed prepared with a Naruto clone and had five more clones hiding in the shadows. As if that wasn't enough, when he had hopped into the bed, the Naruto clone had grabbed onto him, and did the Sexy no Jutsu, giving the Uchiha quite the scare. The others then came out throwing food and feathers and _something_ sticky on him – turned out to be honey to make the food and feathers stick. Naruto meanwhile, unknown to Sasuke, was sleeping away happily in his closet. It had taken three hours for him to get cleaned off.

            Tapping his fingers on the floor he stared at the scroll, trying hard to think of another way to get Naruto to reveal his secret. Suddenly it came to him. Why not use the blonde's mind and pride against him?

~

            "You're my rival but you're also my teammate, right?" Sasuke stood in front of Naruto, having just made the suggestion to him. "If you win, you have one up on me, but if I win, it's just your helping a teammate while training. Besides, if you are the expert shinobi as you claim to be, then a five minute's head start should be more than enough for you to make a clean get away."

            "Fine then," Naruto frowned thoughtfully, "if you win, if you _can_ catch me in an hour's time (I get a five minutes head start, remember?) you can try and see what is under my clothes," Naruto sighed, leaning back against the memorial. "I'm not going to just rip my own clothes off and let you have at it. You gotta get them off yourself after you catch me _and_ it had to be done before the time is up! That's the deal. Take it or leave it."

            "Fine then," Sasuke retorted. Crouching down in a ready position and waiting for Naruto to make his move.

            Naruto started the timer that Sasuke had brought with him and took off, disappearing into the foliage. Sasuke grinned evilly and reached for his bag. Now to start his plan…

~

            "Naruto! Naruto!" a pretty brunette was calling out to him from where she stood in the middle of the clearing. Naruto squinted down through the trees, well camouflaged where he was. The time was nearly up and he had yet to see a single sign of Sasuke. The girl had shown up a few minutes earlier, looking lost and carrying a delicious smelling pot… was it filled with ramen? It sure smelled like it. It smelled the miso ramen with everything special from the Ichiraku. In addition to the pot she was holding an envelope with his name on it. She turned wide purple-brown eyes up to the patch of sky peeking through the tops of the trees. "Oh I knew I should've just gone to his house instead of asking which way he went. Now I'm lost."

            Naruto frowned. Oh, the poor girl was lost. Well, as a shinobi he had the duty to serve and protect and take care of Damsels in Distress and all that stuff, right? But, the time… Sasuke could still be out there, waiting for him to reveal himself.

            "Now how am I supposed to confess my love to him if I'm lost!" the girl wailed and sunk to her knees, body shaking.

            Naruto's eyes nearly popped out of his head. _Did she just say…?_ Well, no time like the present to reveal one's self to an admirer, huh? Besides, there's no way that Sasuke could possible show up in that miniscule time left, right?

            Naruto hopped down from his branch and walked over to the shivering girl. He crouched down beside her.

            "Uh, miss? Miss, you okay?" Naruto placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

            "Na-Naruto?" the girl's tremulous voice washed over him in a soothing whisper.

            "Yeah?" Naruto's cheeks turned a rosy pink. 'This girl is cute!' he thought.

            "Gotcha."

            Naruto barely had time to register the masculine voice before he was thrown on his back and the girl had straddled his waist, pinning his legs down with her legs. Staring at the girl, mouth open in surprise, he grew angry when he realized that those eyes and the voice could only belong to *Pop!* Uchiha Sasuke. 

            The boy, now obviously a boy since he had just released his jutsu, grinned down at his captive, grabbing his hands in his left and pinning them above the blonde's head. Naruto glared, baring his teeth, blue eyes blazing with fury and cheeks red in anger and embarrassment.

            "You… You… Get off! _Get off!_" he wriggled and squirmed and bucked his hips, trying to squeeze out from under Sasuke or at least throw him off. Sasuke, pleased that his latest plan worked, began tugging at Naruto's shirt up with his other hand, slowly pushing it up the blonde's thin frame. "No! No! Stop it! Not fair! You tricked me! I would've won! I only had two more minutes. Unh!" Sasuke had shoved Naruto's arms into Naruto's chest, knocking the wind out of him. "Uhh, huhh, hahh, hahh, oooh." Naruto grimaced from the pain and lack of air. "Trying to knock me out, are you? Going to try and take it from me?" He wheezed.

            "Shut up!" Sasuke snorted and gave one final tug, pulling the jumpsuit up the boy's chest and tangling the blonde's arms in it. The two froze.

            Sasuke stared at smaller boy squirming under him, eyes wide in disbelief as he gazed at what lay hidden under that baggy orange jumpsuit. Naruto sighed in annoyance.

            "What? I was given this by Gai but pervert-sennin said he didn't want to see me wear it – so I wore it under my clothes instead!"

~Owari~

Gai had given Naruto the green training suit before Naruto's departure from Konoha with Jiraiya. He said that it was the secret to Lee's success. Naruto was eager to put it on, but Jiraiya refused to see Naruto wear the jumpsuit.

Yes, I know I didn't use the proper names. I'm lazy, so sue me. Besides, while I did correct some minor spelling errors and such, I was trying to leave the story mostly intact from how I had written it some months ago (which, according to the time on the modified section, had been written and edited some time at four in the morning.) I thought it would be more interesting that way. One thing I did change though was where Sasuke was pulling Naruto's jumpsuit up – he had been holding both of Naruto's hands with both of his and was tugging the shirt up with his teeth. I decided it would be too much of a strain to Sasuke's neck… and later I thought it would just look plain wrong. Yeah. It takes me a moment for some things.

The rating was because of the language… I almost put it at PG-13, but then I was babysitting the other day and the adorable little five-year-old (he'll be six in June), after I finally got him changed into clothes that he insisted didn't match (they did), he was all "D*mn. F**k $h*t." Every time he starts using those words I want to scream and scold at his preschool teachers for not putting a stop to what the kids are saying on the campus – that is where he picks them up.


End file.
